fsx.exe causes Windows7 scheme to change to "Basic," then I get Fatal Error in FSX

[daveyd]

I get the following notification message whenever I start Flight SimulatorX Deluxe Acceleration Pack 2008 in Windows7 Home Premium X64.



After flying for a few minutes, I tinker with the onscreen menu's (labeled: 'Menu'--> 'New', --> 'View') , and it causes FSX to crash creating the fatal error found in the Event Viewer seen below: :


General Info on the 'Fatal Error'


Details of the error:


This error happens all the time when clicking on any of the menu's in Microsoft Flight Simulator. After the error, FSX tries to restart itself, and does so successfully. Three to five minutes later, the Fatal Error cycle continues on.

My PC isn't overclocked, all drivers have been updated to the latest version. OS updates are current, hotfixes, patches from Microsoft & FSX etc have all been applied to no avail. This is a clean installation of Windows 7 X64 Home Premium Family Pack with less than one week of time on the OS. The FSX DVD is brand new, so there are no surface scratches on it, nor has any third party add-ons been added to FSX. Device Manager checks in without any hardware conflicts. Everything is at factory settings with ample overhead power to leave the Windows Color Scheme alone for goodness sake.

Has any one else experienced this error? How do I fix this, beside not using my computer at all? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

[McFlysky]

I have W7 x64 with FSX (sp1 & sp2) and no serious problems.

I would try uninstalling Acceleration and see if it makes a difference.

[mgbmike]

Your first screenshot is normal. Windows turns off the fancy Aero for running FSX.
Regarding the menu crashes do a Google search on "fsx uiautomationcore.dll" (without the quotes) and see if that helps.
Mike

[Hansz]

I think that the scheme change to Basic have nothing to do with the FSX crash. My W7 also change to basic when I start FSX but I donīt have any crash.

[freddy]

When you run FSX in Windows 7 (or Windows Vista), the desktop theme will automatically change down to the "Windows Basic" theme. This is normal and happens for everyone running FSX in Windows 7 (and Vista). The Windows Basic theme doesn't use all the fancy Windows stuff like Aero, so unnecessary overhead is reduced which will, in turn, help a little with performance.

You mention that you fly for a few minutes and then tinker with the menus before getting a fatal error ... I have read reports in other threads about an FSX issue with Windows 7 where using the FSX menu can cause FSX to crash. This sounds like it could be your problem. Do a search in these forums and other forums (such as AVSIM) for the word "uiautomation". Apparently the FSX Windows 7 menu crash problem is linked to the "UIautomation.dll" file in your /Windows/System32 folder. If you replace that file with the one from Vista then you should fix the issue. Make sure you get the correct version (32bit or 64bit depending on your system). If you don't have Vista then you can download the "uiautomation.dll" file from various places. Of course, always take a backup of the original file before making a change.

I hope this helps.

-----------------------
Edit: Looks like mgbmike's post above beat me to it.

[McFlysky]

Un-install Acceleration and see if that makes a difference.

[Ragtopjohnny]

Wait on uninstallation -

You need to change your game settings to your DESKTOP settings.

So, if your desktop say, is 1440 x 900 x 32 you need to have FSX at 1440 x 900 x 32. That happened to me at first with Vista and when I fixed that all was normal.

Hope that helps...

John Thuot II
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
http://www.captainjohnfsx.net

[daveyd]

Hi mgbike, and freddy,

Does Microsoft's tech support suggest that we change the UIautomation.dll file in our Windows/System32 folder as the appropriate resolution to this issue?

How will putting Vista's UIautomation.dll affect the stability of Windows 7 in the long run?

I don't have any problems at all when it comes to running other games like Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, or Arma II, etc. and I don't want these games to malfunction like Flight SimulatorX does on my new machine.

This is a grim reminder of the issues that plagued my Microsoft Office Keyboard (RT9450), which refuses to work with Microsoft Windows Vista. However, it works fine in XP. I plugged that same keyboard in today with Windows7, installed the latest software, and it still doesn't work the way it should. So, I have to keep my favorite keyboard on the XP machine from now on.


TIA

[daveyd]

Un-install Acceleration and see if that makes a difference.

No sarcasm intended, McFlysky. If I uninstalled FSX entirely, it would make a difference. However, I didn't buy the 2008 Gold Edition of SimulatorX to have only a portion of the software working. It should work properly right out of the box, like the aforementioned games that I installed earlier did.

Since FSX is a 'Microsoft' title, a higher standard of seamless OS integration should be expected. If third party game developers can do it, why can't Microsoft fulfill this expectation on their own platform? Is that not right?

Did you have this issue with the FSX Gold Expansion Pack? ...and by removing Acceleration Pack, did it fix it?

Thank you for your reply.

Best Regards,
David in Seattle

[daveyd]

I think that the scheme change to Basic have nothing to do with the FSX crash. My W7 also change to basic when I start FSX but I donīt have any crash.

I've never seen that popup message before. I'm trying to move on from Windows XP to Windows7. However, the upgrade is leaving a sour taste in my mouth, and to my discovery, this "Fatal Error" is not an isolated occurrence.

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...f6ccd?lnk=raot


http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/...fsx-resta.aspx